To the Nurses of Ambulatory Care

I need to brag on some folks for a bit. My entire care team has been great, but the crew at ORMC Ambulatory Care has earned a special place in my heart. No one wants to go to a hospital for a transfusion, but if you have to go through it, it is comforting to know that you have a great team behind you. All of them are great, but Kim, Erin, Angie, and LeAnn have become like family.

I’m not an easy stick; I’ve never had been. Normally, by the time the IV is started it has taken all three of them and an ultrasound machine to get it going. While my oncology team was hesitant about me getting a port, they convinced them that the access issues were serious enough to warrant it. So, as I type this, I am getting this week’s transfusion through my newly implanted (last Tuesday) port.

It takes a special kind of person to be able to work in healthcare, and even more special to be able to work with cancer patients. But it is a rare individual indeed who can make someone look forward to spending 2-4 hours in a transfusion chair, just to get to chat with them. And these nurses are a credit to their profession and to humanity as a whole.

Even though I wish it could have been at a social function, I am glad to have had the honor to meet these women. And I most certainly hope to keep in touch with them long after my days of weekly treatments are completed.